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Kevin Magnussen has called for Haas to find more speed after a tough race last time out at Zandvoort.
Kevin Magnussen racing in the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix (Image Credit: @HaasF1Team on X)Magnussen endured a torrid race in The Netherlands. After crashing in practice and damaging his upgraded front wing, he qualified down in P18. Further misery awaited when power unit component changes saw him start from the pitlane.
When the rain fell in the opening laps, Magnussen pitted for intermediates, putting him into the points. But his pace quickly fell away, and he plummeted down the order in the remainder of the race.
His race struggles were compounded by receiving a black and white flag from the stewards moving under braking. He would finish P16, a lack of pace in his Haas car to blame for his struggles.
More speed needed
Speaking to formula1.com after the race, Magnussen confirmed the track drying after the first rain deluge cost him any chance of points: “I think we did a good job in the beginning of the race with the conditions and managing that well. ”
“Got up to P7 I think, then it dried up and there was a Safety Car, which didn’t help us as we lost all that advantage that we had given ourselves with the right calls in the right conditions.”
Magnussen called his slip down the order “disappointing”. He also called on Haas to find “more pace” to avoid a repeat of the struggles seen in Zandvoort:
“[I] fell from P7 down to wherever I ended up and out of the points. A shame, it feels disappointing when you hustle your way into the top 10 and then you don’t have the pace to be there. We will keep working and today we showed we are trying our best, going for it when there is an opportunity but we need more pace.”
Hulkenberg rues missed opportunities
Teammate Nico Hulkenberg did not fare better, finishing P12. His race became undone after he opted to pit at the start of the race, one of just three drivers to do so. Labelling the beginning of the race “survival mode”, he admitted he was “gutted” to miss out on points: “The first five laps were just survival mode,” said Hulkenberg. “I think it was just three of us… that decided to stay out on slicks, which was definitely not the right decision in hindsight, I lost quite a bit of race time in those couple of laps.”
“I think we missed an opportunity there. Pace, from what I could see was alright within the midfield. Obviously not good enough to do anything up front, but collected a lot of data on the new front wing that we now need to go through and analyse and hopefully we can optimise it a bit more.”
It’s a bit of maximising every opportunity that comes your way so it feels like a bit of a lost one today,” the German added. “A missed one with that rain on Lap 1 and not pitting, so a bit disappointed and gutted about this but yeah we have to move on.”
Feature Image Credit: @HaasF1Team on X
